Ezekiel 9:4-5 (ESV)
And the LORD said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity.
Let me refresh you a little on the context. Ezekiel is having a vision of the extreme wickedness of Judah’s evil actions. Chapter 8 concludes with “Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me still further to anger? Behold they put the branch to their nose. Therefore I will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.” Chapter 9 is a vision of the fulfillment of God’s promise. He sends six angels and a man clothed in linen to the city (in the vision) and instructs the man to mark everyone who sighs and groans over the abominations, and the angels to kill everyone else.
What struck me about this passage is what it did not say. God does not say mark everyone who did not do the abominations, but rather everyone who sighed and moaned over them. This struck me as a clear teaching on the internal nature of holiness. Holiness is not mere external conformity. There may have been people who were forced by peer pressure, family pressure, or anything else to not partake of the actual abominations, but whose hearts yearned after the abominations! They lusted in wanting to join the pagan celebrations, but resisted out of duty or a greater desire to fit in to their group, but not out of the greater desire to please God. They had no broken heart over the evil that was being done. And therefore, they were not deemed holy.
Lord, grant me a heart that is broken-hearted over sin in myself and in others. A heart that yearns for you above any fleshly temptations to sin!
May God bless this reflection to you all.
∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7